‘Dancing With Stars’ vote format may change
“Dancing With the Stars” may possibly change its voting format when the summertime sensation returns to ABC in midseason.
And because of lingering controversy over this summer’s final verdict, there might even be a onetime “dance-off” between winner Kelly Monaco and runner-up John O’Hurley.
“Dancing” drew 22.4 million viewers for its July 6 finale, becoming the most-watched summertime series since “Survivor’s” 2000 debut.
Many of those viewers then hit TV critics and ABC with e-mails after Monaco – who appears on ABC’s “General Hospital” – and her partner received a perfect score from the show’s three judges despite at least two noticeable slips during their routine.
“Should there be a rematch between the two? … Maybe that’s what we’ll do,” ABC Entertainment President Stephen McPherson told TV critics.
The judging process also may change. The first time around, contestants were eliminated through a 50-50 split of judges’ verdicts on the live telecasts, and audience voting on the previous week’s dances.
McPherson said the network might now go with an “American Idol”- style format in which a live “results” show follows the previous night’s competition. Judges still could have their say, but viewer voting probably would solely determine who keeps dancing.
Monaco and her partner won the last pre-finale vote among viewers under the current system, McPherson pointed out. That in effect made the live finale moot, because in split decisions, viewer votes are the tiebreaker.
‘Mars’ lands on CBS
UPN is turning to its corporate big brother to give “Veronica Mars” some extra exposure before its second season.
CBS will air four episodes of the critically hailed but underwatched series, starting with back-to-back episodes Friday at 8 p.m. Additional episodes will air Aug. 5 and 12.
” ‘Veronica Mars’ is a smart, intelligent show with a fabulous star in Kristen Bell, and like many other great series, it simply needs more exposure to gain real traction,” says Dawn Ostroff, president of UPN Entertainment.
Ostroff also says that UPN will do a few things to make sure that the audience for “America’s Top Model,” the new lead-in to “Mars,” stays around this fall.
They include a guest appearance by last spring’s winner, Naima Mora, in the season premiere and dinner with the male cast members from “Mars” for a “Top Model” challenge winner later in the season.
‘Dreams’ not over yet
NBC will rerun the season finale of the canceled drama “American Dreams” – this time with an alternative ending – sometime this summer.
When production began on the series’ March 30 finale, NBC asked Executive Producer Jonathan Prince to shoot a second ending that would tie up the story lines. The network chose to air a cliffhanger instead.
The 12-minute alternative ending takes place in 1969, three years after viewers saw Meg Pryor (Brittany Snow) defy her father by riding off to California with her draft-dodger boyfriend on his motorcycle. Meg returns home and faces her family.